No! Mommy, It's one, two, three

The other day Little m ask for three cookies. So I gave him some but only handed him two and he shakes his head and goes, "No! Mommy. It's one, two, three cookies" And he shows me by counting on his fingers to three! Okay you can't get anything past a little guy who can count to three!

My favorite book of the month!

What a great book! What a better world if more people took the time to know and understand people of different cultures and religions.

Website: http://www.thefaithclub.com/

One quote I liked from the book was:

Gandhi believed that religion is a personal matter between each person and his maker and advised the Christian missionaries who sometimes preached to aggressively to demonstrate Christianity by taking a lesson from the rose. " A rose does not need to preach. It simply spreads its fragrance. The fragrance is its own sermon." As Gandhi explained, the most effective way of preaching the Gospel (or Quran or Torah) is to live it in one's own life and thus let our lives speak to us even as the rose needs no speech but simply spreads its perfume.


from amazon:

In the wake of 9/11, Idliby, an American Muslim of Palestinian descent, sought out fellow mothers of the Jewish and Christian faiths to write a children's book on the commonalities among their respective traditions. In their first meeting, however, the women realized they would have to address their differences first. Oliver, an Episcopalian who was raised Catholic, irked Warner, a Jewish woman and children's author, with her description of the Crucifixion story, which sounded too much like "Jews killed Jesus" for Warner's taste. Idliby's efforts to join in on the usual "Judeo-Christian" debate tap into a sense of alienation she already feels in the larger Muslim community, where she is unable to find a progressive mosque that reflects her non–veil-wearing, spiritual Islam. The ladies come to call their group a "faith club" and, over time, midwife each other into stronger belief in their own respective religions. More Fight Club than book club, the coauthors pull no punches; their outstanding honesty makes for a page-turning read, rare for a religion nonfiction book. From Idliby's graphic defense of the Palestinian cause, Oliver's vacillations between faith and doubt, and Warner's struggles to acknowledge God's existence, almost every taboo topic is explored on this engaging spiritual ride. (Oct. 3)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

I hear music in my head.

The other day Little m was dancing around and he tells me, "I hear music in my head". I asked him what he was listening too. Being only three one would assume it was some children's song, but he tells me he is hearing "Godspell" in his head. He has been hearing that song a lot lately since that is Big M's next play she is doing.

Ask Mr. Bear

Last week our "BFIAR" book was "Ask Mr. Bear. Little m had a blast with this book. Luckily I still had the puppets from the book when I did the book with the girls. So we acted out the story over and over again. Then it moved on to acting out the "The Three Little Pigs". He also did some sorting and trying to learn how to skip.

Valentine's Party

The girls had a valentine party during their writing class last Monday. They traded cards, ate some snacks and played games. During Big M's party the bigger girls had a talent show. Everyone played their instruments, but Big M sang "Little Girls" from "Annie".

Children live what they learn

Last Sunday, Little M was putting stuff in his tunnel and I asked him what he was doing and he said "I'm putting stuff in the compost pile! I cracked up laughing. He is becoming quite the environmentalist. He also loves to help sort the recycle. I am sure he will be a big help in the garden this year. Maybe I can get him to help spread some real compost on my raised beds.

Busy Week!

We were super busy last week. My mom came up on Monday and then stayed with K and little M on Tuesday while big M and I went with friends to a homeschool symposium at a local college. We learned all about financial aid, scholarships and what is needed for high school transcripts. Big M took a class on essay writing for scholarship applications. After the conference we heard there was a young inventors competion at the same collage so we checked that out before heading home. On Saturday both girls had the opportunity to attend Windday Festival at a local University. They learned all kinds of new tips on playing their instruments. After their classes we watched the concert giving by the instructors. They were a very talented group. Then on Sunday we had Mardi Gras party (Fasknacht) at church. K found the baby in the "King's cake" so she was crowned "King" of Mardi Gras. Keith ran in the pancake race, but we couldn't get the girls to give it a try. After all that fun, we still had another party to go to. Our bible study group had a dinner, so we got some more food! I guess we did to much last week. Now Big M and I are both sick.

Valentine's Day

Here are some pictures of our valentine celebration. Every year I decorate the table with goodies (pizza, heart jello jigglers, heart shaped cookies and of course candy. I did have to hid the candy or Big M will have it eaten in no time. Even Keith made some home-made valentine's. He didn't think it was very good, but we were impressed!

Girl Scout Thinking Day

Our Girl Scout troop participated in "Thinking Day" on Saturday. This year the girl's chose Japan for their booth. They won "Most Informative Booth". Each girl had two or three things to research and either bring pictures or a small report to put on the tri-board. They also made some Japanese fans and wrote their names in Japanese on the fans.

Fungus among us

Last week the girls had fun exploring fungus of all kinds. First they grew some algal fungi on some bread and then observed sac fungi (yeast) while making some bread. It is so yummy when school mixes with baking! We also tried to make some spore prints but the mushrooms we got didn't have any. Oh well maybe we can find some outside when the weather warms up.

The Red Carpet

Little M and I had a lot of fun "rowing" "The Red Carpet" for BFIAR. He learned what giving some one the Royal treatment meant when we gave daddy the Royal Treatment one day after work (even though we had severe storms moving through) Little M rolled out the "red carpet" for him and made him a king hat. The next day Little m couldn't understand why daddy didn't wear his crown hat to work. LOL! We also sorted his cars by color, rolled out a red crepe paper all over the house, strung red yarn all around the house, and even made some red carpet snack out of jello and marshmellows.

K's book of the month

I like the "Gorgons Gaze" because its mostly about friendship and I have some of the best friends in the world. It goes into Connie's mind a lot and she's the main character. Kullervo is the bad guy. He is her companion but he wants to be rid of all humanity and she doesn't want to. Colin is Connie's friend. His nickname is Col. The Gorgon is Col's mother's companion. The reason I like it A LOT is because it shows how hard it is to be a celebrity. Connie has lots of hardships to overcome. I like the way Julia Golding writes it.
K.

M's book of the month

The Naming by Alison Croggon.

My favorite book this month is "The Naming". It's about a girl named Maerad who figures out she's a bard from the school Pellinor. The story begins with Maerad being a slave in Gilman's Cot. Being taken there with her mother after their home had been ransacked. Her mother died and all that Maerad had of her mother was her old harp. She seemed to have some sort of power which made everyone scared of doing anything to her. She was found by the bard Cadvan who realized she had the Gift and took her with him to the school of Innail. Then they head to the school of Norloch, so that Cadvan can talk to the head bard there. Alison Croggon did a good job at describing her settings. The history was very thought out and deep. Maerad is my favorite character in this book because she didn't let things stay in her way and had a very powerful Gift.
I also liked Cadvan because he was nice but not mushy. The villains are not petty but evil
and scary. I would give this book five stars.

M.

What we are reading...

from amazon:
This sequel to Birdsall's National Book Award winner, The Penderwicks, has even more charm than the original. The prologue hits the only maudlin note, flashing back to Mrs. Penderwick on her deathbed as she instructs her husband's sister, Claire, to make sure he finds love again after sufficient mourning. The Penderwick sisters--Rosalind, Jane, Skye and Batty--learn of this valediction four years later when Aunt Claire begins arranging blind dates. An emergency MOPS (Meeting of Penderwick Sisters) hatches the Save Daddy plan, in which the girls orchestrate dates so dreadful their father will see widowed life is best. Neighbors on Gardam Street include football-playing brothers Nick and Tommy (the latter plays Tracy to Rosalind's Hepburn), and two newcomers: a widowed professor and her toddler baby. Middle sisters Jane and Skye, who share a room but nothing else, steal the show by swapping homework assignments with hilariously catastrophic results. It's sheer pleasure to spend time with these exquisitely drawn characters, girls so real that readers will feel the wind through their hair as they power down the soccer field. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Almost!

Little M wanted to take his tricycle outside on Sunday to see if he could ride it. He needs about another inch or two to make it work.